Friday, January 25, 2008

DC 2 is done!!! (1/24/08)

From what I learned from SDM 07, once DC2 is done, the Hell Month (January) is pretty much over. Although we still have 3 projects due, but I can definitely feel a huge load off my shoulder.

My DC2 team is fun, probably will be the wildest team I will ever be a part of at MIT. Part of the reason is that we are an all-guys team. We talked more about “life” than about DC 2. My DC1 is an all male group too. So I was wondering about the probability of an all-male DC2 team given the condition of an all-male DC 1 team. To simplify the computation, I set the class size to 60 people (11 female), therefore, 10 groups, each with 6 members. So it’s (C(6, 49) /C(6,60))² where C means Combination. The answer is about 0.024%. Lucky me!!!

Every team did a wonderful job on DC2. I was impressive by some of the solutions out there, especially with the 2 weeks timeframe. I am very satisfied with our presentation today as well. We covered all the bases. For both obesity and undernourishment issue, we had big picture architectural view, revealed all causes to the problem, narrowed the scope down, and offered final solution. We are the only team with a complete business plan (overview, product, biz model, economic of the biz, market def ad size, pricing, entry and growth strategy, competitor, competitive advantage, financial strategy, financial projection, and timeline). I love writing it. It gave me an opportunity to assess all facets of the business when launching a new product or company.

After the 5.5 hours of DC2 presentation marathon, we had a beer party at the Characters. It’s so nice to see everyone relaxed and truly enjoy the time together. It’s amazing what a few drinks can do to the direction of conversions. It brought our cohort much closer. However, this is probably the last time everyone is together, ever, because there are always a few people missing for business trips (according to SDM 07 and 06). I am going to miss January!